Jill Paton Walsh's classic science fiction novel The Green Book is now available from Square Fish with a brand-new cover Pattie and her family are among the last refugees to flee a dying Earth in an old spaceship. And when the group finally lands on the distant planet which is to be their new home, it seems that the four-year journey has been a success. But as they begin to settle this shiny new world, they discover that the colony is in serious jeopardy. Nothing on this planet is edible, and they may not be able to grow food. With supplies dwindling, Pattie and her sister decide to take the one chance that might make life possible on Shine.
'An entertaining read' - Sunday TimesWhy did Sir Julius Farran die?Hoping to attract a generous endowment, St Agatha's College, Cambridge, invites the fabulously wealthy Sir Julius Farran to dine. The evening is a disaster for everyone except the college nurse, Imogen Quy, who Farran invites her to come and work for him.Imogen declines, but when Farran dies, suddenly and shockingly, she has to investigate. His death has left a large hole in his company accounts that could mean financial ruin for St Agatha's. To save her beloved college, Imogen starts to cast her cool eye over the financier's heirs, employees and enemies.What is right about the death of Sir Julius? What is wrong about it? And above all, why did it happen?
'Jill Paton Walsh has created a Miss Marple for the 21st century' - Mirror'A jewel in the traditional English detective mode . . . Ms. Morse has arrived' - ObserverAnother foolhardy Cambridge college night climber has died attempting Harding's Folly. This time it's John Talentire, one of the brightest young dons at St Agatha's, and the verdict is accident, compounded by idiocy.But college nurse Imogen Quy can't help wondering how such a clever young man died so stupidly.And when a wildly eccentric production of Hamlet is interrupted by a murder accusation, Imogen investigates, uncovering more crime than she expected . . .
'A jewel in the traditional English detective mode . . . Ms. Morse has arrived' ObserverAccording to certain Cambridge scholars, the locked library of St Agatha's College is home to an unrivalled - and deeply uninteresting - collection of seventeenth century volumes. It also contains one dead student.At first glance it seems like a tragic accident - even if malicious rumours suggest that Philip Skellow had been stealing books rather than acquiring knowledge when he'd slipped, banged his head, and bled to death overnight.Only Imogen Quy, the college nurse, has her doubts. And before long, another student is found, drowned in an ornamental fountain . . .
'Imogen Quy positively sparkles on the page as an amateur sleuth' - Sunday ExpressWhat is the Summerfield secret?Biography is usually a safe profession. But more than one biographer has found that writing about the late mathematician Gideon Summerfield has nasty consequences. Consequences that can sometimes be deadly.Imogen Quy, the coolly competent nurse at St. Agatha's College, Cambridge, first notices the pattern when her enthusiastic lodger Fran becomes the latest Summerfield biographer. Before she realises how deadly the Summerfield secret is, Fran's life is in danger. And Imogen may be next . . .
'A delight.' - Irish Times'A pitch-perfect Golden Age mystery . . . a gem of a period puzzle' - Financial TimesThirty years ago, Lord Peter Wimsey encountered the Attenbury emeralds. The recovery of Lord Attenbury's magnificent gem made headlines - and launched the shell-shocked young aristocrat on his career as a detective. Now it is 1951: a happily married Lord Peter has just shared the secrets of that mystery with his wife, the detective novelist Harriet Vane. Then the new Lord Attenbury - the grandson of Lord Peter's first client - seeks his help again, this time to prove who owns the gigantic emerald that Wimsey last saw in 1921. It will be the most intricate and challenging mystery he has ever faced . . .
It is 1945. Somewhere in Central Europe, in the aftermath of violence and confusion, a terrified and bloodstained young woman, Eliska, emerges from the forest to take refuge in an apparently abandoned castle. Soon she is joined by others - the idealistic Jiri, the sinister Slavomir and his partisans, and Count Michael Blansky, who is the castle's ancestral owner.But the war has changed things for ever. In a storm of ideological change, the existing order and the aristocratic heritage of ten generations are brushed aside by the arrival of Communism, and Count Michael must join the flood of refugees if he is to survive. He leaves behind a legacy which will entangle those involved for the next forty years in more ways than they can possibly imagine.As divided post-war Europe unravels around them, they must make what they can of lives buffeted by circumstance. For many, individual freedom is at best problematic. For better or worse, communities are destroyed, families uprooted, and the ties of trust, friendship and duty which bind them together are broken down by the implacably irresolvable forces at work. Told through the eyes of nine characters who live through the forty years between the end of the war and the fall of Communism, A Desert in Bohemia is a complex and enthralling testament to the power and powerlessness of the individual in challenging times.
When Marion's mother is silenced, first by a stroke, and then by death, she is left confronting the chaotic detritus of a life obsessively devoted to art. she has left it too late to ask the crucial questions about scenes confusedly remembered from her childhood, and above all about the identity of her own father, 'lost in the war'. Out of the hundreds of paintings in her mother's studio, one, a portrait of a young man, is inscribed 'For Marion'. Is this her father? And who was he?Marion's search takes her to the Cornish town of St Ives. In the remote and closeknit town where communities of fisherfolk and artists have coexisted for many years, she learns of a tragedy which is intrinsically tied up with her father's life. Over fifty years before, the St Ives lifeboat went down with all hands bar one. Marion must delve deep into the past to discover the identity of a man she never knew,a nd in so doing confront the demons which have tortured her own adult life.The Serpentine Cave is an imagined story containing a true one - a powerful novel about memory and loss, birth and rebirth, and past regrets which still have the power to plague the present.
It is, perhaps, the fifteenth century and the ordered tranquillity of a Mediterranean island is about to be shattered by the appearance of two outsiders: one, a castaway, plucked from the sea by fishermen, whose beliefs represent a challenge to the established order; the other, a child abandoned by her mother and suckled by wolves, who knows nothing of the precarious relationship between Church and State but whose innocence will become the subject of a dangerous experiment.But the arrival of the Inquisition on the island creates a darker, more threatening force which will transform what has been a philosophical game of chess into a matter of life and death...
A gripping wartime adventure story for young readers, The Dolphin Crossing (first published in 1967) marked the fiction debut of Jill Paton Walsh, subsequently a celebrated author of detective stories and novels for adults.The Dolphin Crossing is set in 1940 at the height of the Second World War, and concerns two boys: John, a boarding school boy, and Pat, an evacuee from a London slum. Together John and Pat make a daring plan to sail a boat across the English Channel to Dunkirk. Foolhardy as their plan may seem, the boys are sure they must do something to help the stranded British soldiers. 'A story of friendship and growth for two teen-aged boys... A comprehensive presentation of many points of view (the professional soldier, the battle-scarred, the wife and mother) combines with understanding of adolescent psychology in a well-paced evocation of the way it was.' Kirkus Review
'Cleverly plotted . . . Walsh's pitch-perfect re-creation of the charismatic leads is a delight' - Publishers Weekly'Delicious' - BooklistLord Peter Wimsey is delighted to discover that along with a dukedom he has inherited the duties of 'visitor' at an Oxford college. When the fellows ask him to resolve a college dispute, he and Harriet are all too keen to spend some time in Oxford.But the dispute quickly turns sour. The voting is evenly balanced between two passionate parties, and the Warden - who has the casting vote - has mysteriously disappeared. Even worse, several of the fellows begin dying unexpectedly.And the deaths of the deceased fellows bear an uncanny resemblance to the murders in Peter's past cases - murders that Harriet has used in her published novels . . .
A re-issue of a forgotten favourite, FIREWEED is an evocative and unflinching story of wartime survival for younger readersBill is a fifteen-year-old runaway evacuee, and he's finding that surviving on the streets of London is pretty easy, thank you very much. He's fed by a local cafe owner, he earns some cash as a barrow-boy in Covent Garden, and sleeping in the Underground air-raid shelters is cosy - if a bit smelly. Things get more complicated for Bill with the arrival of Julie. She's a runaway too, and although she's a bit posh, she's just as determined as Bill to stay free of interfering parents and 'the social'. But although it's fun for a while to duck Jerry missiles and camp out in bombed-out houses, the reality of living through the Blitz quickly begins to set in. Winter is coming, and Bill and Julie will discover that playing at being grown-ups can be a very dangerous game....First published in 1969, and winner of the 1970's Book World Festival Award, FIREWEED evokes a time of tin Spitfires, powdered eggs, warm woollen mittens and reading by firelight. Perfect for readers young and old, this book is a beautifully written classic, full of adventure, heroism and British wartime courage.
A PLAGUE - A VILLAGE - A LOCKDOWN 1665, Eyam, Derbyshire. 'Here I have set down all that I know of the Plague'It is 1665 and Mall Percival is a shepherd girl living in a Derbyshire village. She tends her flock, spends time with her best friend and teaches her young suitor to read. But one day a parcel of patterns, meant for a new dress for the pastor's wife, wings its way from London.The parcel carries an infection that spreads with horrifying speed. Herbal teas and open windows are the only defence against the sickness. Yet the villagers make a brave and selfless decision: to isolate themselves from the rest of the country. It is a lockdown that saves the neighbouring towns, but at heart-breaking cost to Mall's world.Based on the true events of the village of Eyam, this is the story of a courageous sacrifice that saved Derbyshire and beyond from a deadly virus. *SHORTLISTED FOR THE WHITBREAD PRIZE*'A pocket masterpiece' GuardianReaders love A Parcel of Patterns'I couldn't put it down''Brought me to tears too many times to count''If you think social distancing is hard in the Coronavirus pandemic, read this wonderful novel based on the true story of the village of Eyam'
In 1936, Dorothy L. Sayers abandoned the last Lord Peter Wimsey detective story. Sixty years later, a brown paper parcel containing a copy of the manuscript was discovered in her agent's safe in London, and award-winning novelist Jill Paton Walsh was commissioned to complete it. The result of the pairing of Dorothy L. Sayers with Walsh was the international bestseller Thrones, Dominations. Now, following A Presumption of Death, set during World War II, comes a new Sayers-inspired mystery featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, revisiting his very first case. . . . It was 1921 when Lord Peter Wimsey first encountered the Attenbury Emeralds. The recovery of the gems in Lord Attenbury's dazzling heirloom collection made headlines--and launched a shell-shocked young aristocrat on his career as a detective. Thirty years later, a happily married Lord Peter has just shared the secrets of that mystery with his wife, the detective novelist Harriet Vane. Suddenly, the new Lord Attenbury--grandson of Lord Peter's first client--seeks his help to prove who owns the emeralds. As Harriet and Peter contemplate the changes that the war has wrought on English society--and Peter, who always cherished the liberties of a younger son, faces the unwanted prospect of ending up the Duke of Denver after all--Jill Paton Walsh brings us a masterful new chapter in the annals of one of the greatest detectives of all time.
Sixty years after Dorothy L. Sayers began her unfinished Lord Peter Wimsey novel, Thrones Dominations, Booker Prize finalist Jill Paton Walsh took on the challenge of completing the manuscript--with extraordinary success. "The transition is seamless," said the San Francisco Chronicle; "you cannot tell where Sayers leaves off and Walsh begins." "Will Paton Walsh do it again?" wondered Ruth Rendell in London's Sunday Times. "We must hope so." Jill Paton Walsh fulfills those hopes in A Presumption of Death. Although Sayers never began another Wimsey novel, she did leave clues. Drawing on "The Wimsey Papers," in which Sayers showed various members of the family coping with wartime conditions, Walsh has devised an irresistible story set in 1940, at the start of the Blitz in London. Lord Peter is abroad on secret business for the Foreign Office, while Harriet Vane, now Lady Peter Wimsey, has taken their children to safety in the country. But war has followed them there---glamorous RAF pilots and even more glamorous land-girls scandalize the villagers, and the blackout makes the nighttime lanes as sinister as the back alleys of London. Daily life reminds them of the war so constantly that, when the village's first air-raid practice ends with a real body on the ground, it's almost a shock to hear the doctor declare that it was not enemy action, but plain, old-fashioned murder. Or was it? At the request of the overstretched local police, Harriet reluctantly agrees to investigate. The mystery that unfolds is every bit as literate, ingenious, and compelling as the best of original Lord Peter Wimsey novels.
In Jill Paton Walsh's fourth installment in her inspired continuation of Dorothy L. Sayers's acclaimed mysteries, Lord Peter Wimsey and his detective novelist wife, Harriet Vane, revisit their beloved Oxford, where a long and literate courtship finally culminated in their engagement. To his surprise, Lord Peter, as the Duke of Denver, has been charged with settling a dispute among the Fellows of St. Severin's College, Oxford University. At first, the stalemate seems the result of a simple difference of opinion about a valuable manuscript. Some of the Fellows regard the book as nothing but an insurance liability that should be sold to finance a speculative purchase of land. The voting is evenly balanced. The Warden would normally cast the deciding vote, but he has disappeared. And when several of the Fellows die unexpectedly, Lord Peter and Harriet set off on an investigation to uncover what is really going on at St. Severin's. With this return to the Oxford of Gaudy Night, which many readers regard as their favorite of Sayers's original series, Jill Paton Walsh revives the wit and brilliant plotting of the Golden Age of detective fiction with The Late Scholar.
'Miraculously right: catching precisely the tone of the relationship . . . thrilling' - The Times'A must for all Wimsey lovers . . . an entertaining read' - Northern EchoIt's 1940, and while the Second World War rages on, Harriet Vane - now Lady Peter Wimsey - has taken her children to safety in the country.But the war has followed them: glamorous RAF pilots and even more glamorous land-girls scandalise the villagers, and the blackout makes the night-time lanes as sinister as the back alleys of London.Then the village's first air raid practice ends with a very real body on the ground - and it's not a war casualty, but a case of plain, old-fashioned murder. And it's not long before a second body is found . . .
England 1940: Harriet Vane - nun Lady Peter Wimsey - hat sich mit ihren Kindern in die beschauliche Countryside zurückgezogen. Doch auch hier wird es nicht langweilig. Die in der Umgebung stationierten Royal Air Force Soldaten und die hübschen Mädchen vom Landdienst sorgen für reichlich Unterhaltung in Talboys. Bis eines Tages aus dem Spiel Ernst wird und die schöne Wendy tot auf der Straße liegt. Ein Opfer des Krieges ist sie jedoch ebensowenig wie der nächste Tote. Ein Fall für Lord Peter und seine scharfsinnige Ehegattin.
'An engrossing, intelligent and provocative novel in the guise of a conventional mystery' - New York Times Book Review'A superb job of seamless collaboration. Thrones, Dominations is pure pleasure.' - Wall Street Journal1936. Lord Peter Wimsey has returned from his honeymoon, eager to settle into married life with his cherished new wife, the novelist Harriet Vane. As they become part of fashionable London society they encounter the glamorous socialite Rosamund Harwell and her wealthy impressario husband Laurence. Unlike the Wimseys, Rosamund and Laurence are not in love - and all too soon, one of them is dead. It is a murder that only Lord Peter Wimsey can solve . . .
